Crimp | Webster's Dictionary (1865)

Crimp, a.

adjective

a. [A-S. ge-crympt, crimped, curled, D. krimpen, to contract, or draw together, and thus to wrinkle, to crisp, Ger. krimpen, krämpen, krumpen, M. H. Ger. krimpfen, to shrink, to crumple, Sw. krympa, Dan. krympe, O. H. Ger. krimfan, to rub, wear by rubbing, A-S. acrिमman, to rub fine, break into small pieces, crumb, crymbig, crooked.] 1. Easily crumbled; friable; brittle. [Rare.]

Now the fowler . . . Treads the crimp earth, ranging through fields and glades. Philips.

Sense 2. Inconsistent; contradictory. [Cant.] The evidence is crimp; the witnesses swear backward and forward, and contradict themselves. Arbuthnot.

Crimp, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [imp. & p. p. CRIMPED (krĭmpt); p. pr. & vb. n. CRIMPING.] [See supra, and cf. Ger. krimmen, to seize or grasp with the claws or the beak.]

To form into ridges or plaits; to crimple or curl; as, to crimp the hair. “The comely hostess in a crimped cap.” W. Irving.
To pinch and hold; to seize.
To decoy or trepan into the power of a recruiting officer, or of a press-gang; as, to crimp seamen.
(Cookery.) To cause to contract, or to render more crisp, as the flesh of a fish, by gashing it, when living, with a knife; as, to crimp skate, &c.

Crimp, n.

noun

n. 1. An agent for coal merchants, and for persons concerned in shipping. [Prov. Eng.]

Sense 2. One who decoys or trepans into the power of a recruiting officer, or a press-gang. Marryatt.

Sense 3. A game at cards. [Obs.]